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<title>Queen of White Lies by airsalonpasandpettysquabbles</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23860192">Queen of White Lies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/airsalonpasandpettysquabbles/pseuds/airsalonpasandpettysquabbles'>airsalonpasandpettysquabbles</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Actually make it no comfort, Albus Dumbledore Being an Idiot, Angst, Apathetic Albus Dumbledore, Broken Albus Dumbledore, Chess Metaphors, Dumbledore acting as God, Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Heavy Angst, Hurt and meh comfort, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Misguided Albus Dumbledore, My take on a manipulative Dumbledore, POV Albus Dumbledore, Puppet Master Albus Dumbledore, Yet he tries and tries again until he can't, You can't change fate man</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 22:16:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,086</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23860192</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/airsalonpasandpettysquabbles/pseuds/airsalonpasandpettysquabbles</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was times like these that made Albus Dumbledore hate his role in the unfolding theatre of destiny.<br/>He pulled the strings, and yet, it was almost as if someone was pulling his. Almost.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Albus Dumbledore &amp; Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Queen of White Lies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My take on a manipulative Dumbledore, which means that there are some things that he thinks and does that diverge in some ways from the canon.</p><p>The title is from a song by The Orion Experience. Go check them out, they're a cool band!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was times like these that made Albus Dumbledore hate his role in the unfolding theatre of destiny. He pulled the strings, and yet, it was almost as if someone was pulling his. Almost. </p><p> </p><p>It happened with Grindelwald. He had made a mistake, he was too attached. </p><p>It happened with Tom. He had made a mistake, he hadn't gotten attached at all. </p><p>It happened with Severus. Mistake. </p><p>It happened with James and Lily. <em>Dead. </em></p><p> </p><p><em>He </em>had let a Dark Lord come back into the Wizarding World. <em>Twice</em>. And so, he was most definitely not going to let it stay there. He needed players on his board. </p><p>He needed his mindless minister of magic on the chessboard. He needed his bishop to have pretended power. Only then would his strategy start working.  </p><p>He needed his order members on the chessboard. He needed his knights to sacrifice themselves for the game. For the rest of the players.  </p><p>He needed his spy on the chessboard. His spy was his rook. The rook was a tower of solitude that was tasked with protecting the King and Queen.</p><p>He needed his martyr on the chessboard. His martyr was his King. Without the King, they would fail. They would fall. But the King wasn't yet captured. They were safe for now. </p><p>He needed his students on the chessboard. On the frontlines. He needed his pawns. Most would fall, that was true. But their job was to die for the rest. For the major players in the game. </p><p> </p><p>He had needed himself on the board. He had needed the Queen to move any way she wanted if only to protect the King. <em>Any </em>way. And so he had. </p><p>Let Tom kill the Potters, the King needed a tragic backstory to become a martyr. </p><p>Let him move into an abusive muggle family, the King needed a ruined childhood to become a martyr.</p><p>Let him escape death each year with more scars (physical and psychological ones), the King needed hardened experiences to become a martyr. </p><p>Let him compete in a dangerous tournament that would lead to the resurrection of the dark King, <em>this </em>King needed traumatic tragedies to keep up his martyr and hero complex.</p><p>There were too many "<em>Let him</em>"s that Albus didn't know at which point he would stop tempting fate. He didn't know when the King would crack. Maybe it would be with Sirius and the veil. Maybe it would be when, <em>if</em>, he discovers that he's a Horcrux. The Queen had no idea, and yet, she had to keep crossing lines and barriers to keep her martyr alive. To keep her King alive. To keep the game alive until it ends with the severed head of the black marbled King's head on the board. Tom <em>would </em>die. He was making sure of it.</p><p>There was another move he had to make for it to happen, however. The Queen needed to go. </p><p><em>Let him watch on as his mentor dies, the King needed to be alone once more to finish his training in martyrdom. </em>The Queen knew he would snap. He wouldn't break, however. He <em>couldn't. </em></p><p>The King would be devastated, of course. But he would remain <em>alive</em>.</p><p>The Rook needed to understand that he was now alone in protecting the King. In bringing him forth in the plans.</p><p>The opponents needed to be tricked into a false sense of hopefulness. That's it, trick the other side. They didn't yet know his strategy. They didn't know of his rook, of his spy. They didn't know of the Elder Wand's true <em>"</em><em>loyalties". </em>Loyalties. What a strange word. In a war, between sides, it didn't matter. Your loyalties condemned you to a life of misery. To a life of strategy and chessboards and <em>sacrifice</em> that you should never come to know of. Loyalties sounded secure and hopeful, but they were more trapping and snapping than that. </p><p>The Queen <em>would </em>fall, but the game would go on. He had planned this for a while. It was time to put his gameplan in action. But before he did, he needed to make sure his pieces were prepared. </p><p>He took one last pitied look at the emerald eyes of the King. He was ready. He would find and destroy mercilessly the Horcruxes. He didn't know all, no, that would only happen at the climax of the game. And even then, Harry would need to figure some things for himself. Everything would be brought to light. It would all eventually make sense to the King. His missing family, his upbringing, his dangerous stunts at school, the painful tragedies he had suffered through, they would all bring clarity.</p><p> </p><p>A lamb to the slaughter. </p><p> </p><p>A simple weapon. A <em>pawn. </em></p><p> </p><p>The King would hate him. No doubt, with his martyrdom and all, he would <em>despise </em>how the Queen played her allies like instruments and turned them into pawns.</p><p> </p><p>The King would then come to the realization that <em>they </em>were now very few. Only some still stood on the battlefield. Some knights. Some pawns. Himself. The Order would be half-gone, the students would lose their counterparts, Harry had lost everyone else who was in play. </p><p> </p><p>Harry would know that Albus tried to fix what he had broken. <em>Tom. </em>As well as break what he had created. <em>Harry</em>. </p><p> </p><p>He had created Harry and his values and his traits out of <em>nothing. </em>Out of a makeshift prophecy. Out of predictions. Out of a malicious and selfish want for redemption and self-worth. </p><p> </p><p>His purpose was never to become Harry's mentor. Never a father figure either. He was supposed to be there to prepare Harry for war. For his death. </p><p> </p><p>The King would most likely break then, only after all the heartbreaks and abuse, only after the war was over. Only after he crossed the line of understanding would he truly break into millions of shards of misery. He would go crazy from the lies that would seep into his mind like poisonous seeds. </p><p> </p><p>Albus Dumbledore hated his role in the unfolding theatre of destiny with an undescribed passion. It was ineffable, really. He pulled and pulled the strings until he had to pluck them to make the show go on. He was behind anything and everything, always one step ahead, and yet, he felt ridiculously miserable pulling on the strings of others as destiny slyly and subtlety pulled his. </p><p> </p><p>He was just another pawn in destiny's game. Or so he told himself, each time he suppressed the unyielding bile of guilt in his stomach.   </p>
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